God bless'em for cutting through the smoke to get to the
fire. Just about a week after Tyler Dellow connected the dots on Campbell's
emails and left the NHL red-faced, MacLean is one of the first big-name media
to not get hung up on the cattiness of Campbell calling Marc Savard(notes) "a little
fake artist" to explain why this behavior was a problem for the League then and
now:

"Colin Campbell did so something wrong, Eric. He talked
about his son Gregory. No matter how you slice it, it's a conflict of interest.
When Steve Walkom, who at the time was the NHL director of officiating, is
being grilled about games with Gregory Campbell(notes), and that is the rub. That is
the one serious problem with Colin Campbell."

"What referee reading those emails or this story this week
isn't thinking, 'Jeez, next time I have the Boston Bruins ... Colin Campbell has
the ear of Terry Gregson, and I make a bad call in that game, how does that
affect my chances?'"

Bingo.

It's understandable that the Savard comments grabbed the
most attention, inspired the most reaction. Campbell should (and will)
apologize to him, but the core of what Eric Francis said above is true: It's
part of Campbell's job to tell the director of officiating who is embellishing,
who is diving and who the officials should keep an eye on. Which is what he did
with Savard, only in petty terms.

It's the sexier story, but not the important one. MacLean
knew this, and everyone else should wake up to it. Because if Colin Campbell
has revealed anything in the calculated spin over this controversy, it's that
he's oblivious as to why it's such a tarnish on him and the League he serves.

The debate was refueled in the last 48 hours by the NHL,
which had its VP of hockey operations appear on NHL Network, VERSUS, NHL Live
on XM NHL Home Ice and which (finally) covered the story with prominence on
NHL.com. Which is to say they used NHL-approved media outlets to help get Campbell's
carefully crafted side of the story out.

Then Campbell appeared on TSN for a 1-on-1 with James
Duthie, and things got a little more revelatory. He was fair, he was on point
with some serious questions about Campbell's integrity and the appropriateness
of his correspondence about his son, NHL forward Gregory Campbell, and Boston
Bruins center Marc Savard.

One loses count of the number of outrageous statements and
casual denials of any wrongdoing. Our favorite part was when Campbell
said "one would be crazy to think that we could influence referees in
individual games" when that's an
essential part of his job.

Also: He didn't know that emails could be used as evidence
in a hearing. Or that they could be found after he sent them from a BlackBerry.
Please tell us that in the ensuing years the NHL has rectified the education
gap on technology, and that the same guys who don't understand that magic
picture box in their hand aren't the same ones influencing new media and social
media policy.

What Campbell, based on his interviews, clearly doesn't get:
His behavior, not the emails themselves, has tarnished his reputation and that
of the League.

Of the 30 active players, all 30 said they believed
Campbell's integrity has been permanently broken because of the e-mails - even
if they were old e-mails and were taken out of context.

One player said it didn't matter. "Someone who wasn't with our organization at
the time got an e-mail from Colie saying something negative about me," one
player said. "I can't say anything publicly though, because if I ever have to
go in front of him, it could affect what happens now."

Twenty-two of the 30 players said they think Campbell should step down from his
position, be re-assigned, or as one player suggested, get some help in the form
of a discipline committee.

"I think if there was a three-man discipline board it would make it a lot
easier to swallow a suspension," a Western Conference player said. "Colie can
stay on the board, but maybe have the Board of Governers or the G.M.s or the
teams or somebody appoint one member to the board and the NHLPA appoint
another. That way there can be no gripes."

And that's the damage done. Trust has been lost. Campbell
actually began his TSN interview with the following bit of irony:

"For someone to say all of a sudden that emails that were
strung together from three, four and five years ago, all of a sudden to say I
can't do the job three years later then that must mean everything I did the
past few years were wrong and should be questioned?"